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December 14, 2002

Senator Barbara Boxer
United States Senate
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Boxer:

I’m writing to you to express my grave concern with the Endangered Species Act as it currently stands, and the abuse of the Act by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), based in Tucson, Arizona, and similar organizations.

In March of 2000, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM), claiming that the BLM had not properly consulted with the US Fish & Wildlife Service regarding the endangered Peirson’s Milkvetch (Astragulus magdelenae var. peirsonii), also known as the PMV, which is native to the Algodones Dunes in southeastern California. The BLM subsequently settled with the CBD, implementing a temporary closure of an additional 49,000 acres of the dunes . These closures were in addition to a 32,000-acre wilderness area, in which the plant in question thrives. The “temporary” closure still stands today, over two years after the settlement.

The Algodones Dunes host the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area (ISDRA), a world-class off-highway vehicle facility. Hundreds of thousands of visitors visit the ISDRA each year, including approximately 170,000 this Thanksgiving weekend alone. The OHV community rallied together and organized in the months leading up to the BLM’s settlement in November 2000. There are various organizations representing the interests of off-highway vehicle users, including the American Sand Association . These organizations have done an outstanding job of educating users of the ISDRA on the need to preserve species and respect the temporary closures. They also funded a study of the PMV, which showed that the PMV is thriving, both in the wilderness area and in the areas where OHV’s have traveled for decades.

As the evidence mounted that the PMV was in fact thriving, the BLM released a Draft Recreation-Area Management Plan, which proposed partially reopening the temporary closures (the wilderness area is unchallenged and will remain closed). The CBD vehemently objects to the DRAMP, and has subsequently petitioned the FWS to list an insect species as endangered, and to designate critical habitat in the ISDRA . Clearly, the CBD will stop at nothing to put an end to OHV activity in the ISDRA, despite the existing Wilderness Area, successfully created in the 1980’s to mitigate any potential for damage to the habitat of species native to the ISDRA.

This has become an irrational battle on the CBD’s part, at the cost of millions of dollars to US taxpayers. OHV use is a legitimate recreational activity of which the CBD disapproves. Millions of Americans have invested billions of dollars in specialized vehicles used in the sand dunes—some of which exceed $100,000 in value—and are faced with repeated attempts by the CBD, Sierra Club, PEER, and other organizations to render their investments valueless by closing the dunes to OHV use.

Senator Boxer, the time has come to reform the Endangered Species Act. The Act is currently used primarily to close public lands and undermine private-property rights. Radical groups like the CBD have become expert at identifying species and sub-species that they claim exist only in areas where activities of which those organizations disapprove occur, and use these “species” to put an end to those activities. In a world in which species extinctions occur routinely and naturally, this gives radical groups incredible power in holding Americans hostage, destroying not only recreational opportunities and related investments, but also the livelihoods of those Americans whose farms, fisheries, or land may (or may not) play host to a species that may or may not be endangered, may or may not in fact be a distinct species, and may or may not be able to be “saved,” at great cost to human beings.

I am a regular American, and your constituent. I do not profit in any way from OHV activities or businesses. I implore you--please reform the ESA and remove the power of radical groups to destroy the lives of regular Americans.

Yours truly,

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Originally posted by Bluesky:
make sure your seatbelts are secured adequately. Make sure also that you have a high quality throttle cable and that it has a properly gauged return spring. Oh and don't go showing off too much at first--we want you to survive until the real Barbara Boxer writes you back!

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That was in very poor taste. A person died and now you try to make some sarcastic wit from the tragedy. I can understand why Poiks deleted his post.

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Originally posted by Bluesky:
[QBDid you read Poiks's post? he made some very violent suggestions. I'll bet he thought better of it and pulled his post. I'll stand by mine.[/QB]

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Originally posted by Bluesky:
why don't write what you really wrote Poinks?

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This has become an irrational battle on the CBD’s part

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The Act is currently used primarily to close public lands and undermine private-property rights

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Radical groups like the CBD have become expert at identifying species and sub-species that they claim exist only in areas where activities of which those organizations disapprove occur, and use these “species” to put an end to those activities

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I can understand your chagrin at not being able to enjoy your favorite recreation because of necessary protections to the species threatened by it

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